This invention relates to a series of steps for imparting unpredictable color patterns in fabric and, in particular, the generation and dye-fixing of color patterns concurrently with the intentional distressing of denim garments.
Current trends in the fashion industry have generated increasing interest in the use of the relatively coarse denim fabric for a wide variety of different garments. Initially, blue denim fabric achieved popularity because of its wear resistance and relatively low cost. However, in recent years fashion trends have found the denim fabric to be worn in virtually every social setting without regard to its traditional ability to withstand wear. One of the first trends has been the intentional fading of garments fabricated from blue denim effected by repeated washings and often accompanied by immersion in a bleaching solution by the user. This was followed by a pretreatment, prior to sale, of the fabricated denim garments in order to provide a softening in addition to the prefading indicative of long term use. Next came a pretreatment or preconditioning process that intentionally distressed the denim garments so that they were more than just faded but had actually been abraded so as to appear scuffed and subjected to lengthy periods of hard use.
The intentional distressing gave rise to the use of abrasive elements which are placed in intimate contact with the garment to create the scuffed or distressed appearance. It has now become industry practice to soak porous abrasive elements in bleaching solutions in order to conduct both the initial fading and the intentional abrasion in the same process. This preconditioning sequence is generally referred to as stone-washing with the garment and the porous abrasive rocks in a tumbling apparatus. Typically, conventional chlorine bleaches, such as sodium hypochlorite, whose properties have been well known in the industry for a long period of time have been utilized for the faded appearance.
Since the fashion industry is continually seeking new looks, the successor to the stone-washing process and its abrasive conditioning of the garment have been the topic of great commercial interest. It is recognized that the fashion look produced by the conventional bleaching agents has been found to be limited in range of coloration. As a result, the industry moved toward the use of stronger bleaching agent solutions such as the permanganates. This change increased the coloration range of the bleaching process extending it from a mottled white denim to the well-known traditional blue. In certain cases, the bleaching agent has been made strong enough so that in combination with the action of the abrasive rocks a near white or fully bleached distressed garment is manufactured.
In an attempt to create different coloration effects, sponge dyeing followed by immersion in a dye-fixing wash solution has been employed to provide shadings or indistinct color variation in a garment. This technique has been used after the distressing of the fabric. It is normally characterized by a lack of a distinctive coloration pattern since the variations in coloration across the fabric are due to dye migration. Lacking in the fabric treating industry is the ability to provide distressed effects and at the same time introduce coloration patterns marked by clear and distinctive outlines. Further, the production of defined patterns of multiple colors has not been heretofore commercially available to the industry.
Accordingly, it is a primary objective of the present invention to provide a method for imparting a well-defined random coloration pattern to treated fabric. Also, the invention is directed to the fixing of the random coloration pattern in the fabric to produce a lasting distinctive pattern therein. Furthermore, the invention is concerned with introducing a plurality of colors to the fabric through the use of the present method in order to achieve true random patterns of multiple colors. These benefits accrue through use of the process while still effecting the abrasion characteristic of the currently fashionable, intentionally distressed garment.